CLEVELAND, Ohio — A low-level participant in a sprawling sports-betting scandal involving veteran NBA guard and former Shaker Heights basketball star Terry Rozier pocketed enough illicit winnings to buy a new car or put a down payment on a house, according to federal prosecutors.
Timothy McCormack, a proxy bettor, got advance tips that Rozier planned to fake an injury during a March 2023 game and that betting on Rozier’s poor performance would be a sure thing, court documents show.
Federal prosecutors say McCormack laid down six bets and raked in $53,887.
Though modest compared with the hundreds of thousands that authorities say higher-level bettors earned, McCormack’s haul showcases how quickly insiders can profit from rigged player performances.
“The scheme undermined the core principle of unpredictability that is integral to the public’s faith in sports,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Weintraub wrote in a court filing. “The defendant and his co-conspirators — motivated by nothing more than greed and the desire to make a quick and undeserved windfall — have tarnished the public’s faith in the integrity of national sports and the sports-betting process.”
Weintraub made the argument in asking a federal judge to sentence McCormack — who pleaded guilty in the Rozier scheme and others involving former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter — to between three years and five months and four years and three months in prison.
McCormack is set for sentencing Jan. 21 in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Rozier, along with a former Shaker Heights classmate, two high-level bettors and others more akin to McCormack, was [charged last month](https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2025/10/fbi-arrests-of-terry-rozier-damon-jones-highlight-cleveland-connections-in-nba-gambling-probe.html) in a separate case tied to rigged prop bets — wagers on individual player statistics rather than game outcomes.
Rozier has not yet been arraigned in the case, but his attorney Jim Trusty has said Rozier never participated or even knew about the scheme.
Prosecutors have accused Rozier of telling former high school classmate De’Niro Laster that he planned to fake the injury during the Charlotte Hornets’ March 23, 2023, game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
During that season, Rozier averaged 21.1 points, 5.1 assists and 2.6 made 3-pointers, and his betting line hewed to those averages.
Once Rozier planned to pull himself from the game early, Laster told bettors, including Marves Fairley, prosecutors said. Fairley paid Laster $100,000 for the tip, according to authorities.
The information trickled down through intermediaries to McCormack, a so-called proxy bettor who placed bets as instructed by higher-ups.
The bettors wagered for Rozier to underperform and won big after he pulled himself from the game. The group split the profits, with some going to Laster, who then gave money to Rozier, prosecutors say.
Authorities have not said exactly how much money each bettor made, nor how much Rozier is accused of earning from the scheme.
McCormack also bet on two games involving Porter’s performances, according to court records. Porter, who owed a gambling debt to a friend of McCormack’s, agreed to fake an injury during a Jan. 27, 2024, game against the Los Angeles Clippers, prosecutors said. McCormack won $33,250 by betting on Porter to have a bad game.
He took in $36,000 in similar fashion after Porter took himself out of a March 24, 2024, game against the Sacramento Kings after faking an injury, court records show.
Another bettor made $101,900 worth of bets on Porter’s performance for a potential payout of $1.1 million, according to prosecutors. The sports book flagged those bets as suspicious and never paid out the money.
That bet sparked the FBI’s probe that led to the arrests of former Cavaliers player and assistant coach [Damon Jones](https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2025/10/scary-terry-d-jones-and-a-former-prep-star-here-are-the-cleveland-connections-in-the-fbis-gambling-probe.html), Hall of Fame player and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and a slew of members in the New York mafia.
Prosecutors wrote in court filings they’re seeking a prison sentence for McCormack to underscore the importance of cracking down on sports betting schemes.
“Further, in light of the relative nascency of legalized sports betting on a nationwide scale, it is critical for the purposes of general deterrence that the Court send a strong message that performance rigging and fraudulent betting are serious crimes that will be punished accordingly,” Weintraub wrote.